Our Mission Statement

Lake Ann Camp exists to challenge individuals in a group setting to make biblical, life-changing decisions through unique learning experiences.

Statement of Faith

Section A - The Living God

We believe in the one living and true God who has revealed Himself in Scripture. He is perfect in holiness, goodness, wisdom, justice, mercy and love. He alone is God, and exists eternally as a tri-unity. He is one in essence, yet at the same time, three coequal persons who act together in creation, providence and redemption. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are equally God, yet there are not three gods, but one.

The Father reigns with providential care over all life and history in the created universe, and He fully knows the past, present and future. He hears and answers prayer. He initiated salvation by sending His Son, and He is Father to those who by faith receive His Son as Lord and Savior. The Son became man, Jesus the Messiah, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

Being fully God and fully man, He revealed God through His sinless life, miracles and teaching. He provided salvation through His atoning death as a substitute in our place, and by His bodily resurrection from the dead. He ascended into heaven where He rules over all creation. He intercedes for all believers and dwells in them as their ever-present Lord. The Holy Spirit inspired men to write the Scriptures. Through this Word, He convicts persons of their sin and awakens them to an understanding of the righteous provision of Christ. He draws them to the Savior, and bears witness to their new birth. At regeneration, the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit indwells, seals, empowers, guides, teaches, fills, sanctifies and produces the fruit of Christlikeness in all who belong to Christ. He also gives spiritual gifts to all believers for ministry in the church. Among the spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament are several often referred to as sign gifts, the primary purpose for which was to point to the validity of God’s revelation during the time the New Testament was being written. As the canon of Scripture has been completed, the Church does not look for the continued exercise of these sign gifts. The living God is worthy of all reverence and worship, and every aspect of the ministry of Lake Ann Camp must be conducted as humble service joyfully rendered to Him.

Section B - The Scriptures

We believe the Bible is God’s Word, the record of God’s revelation of Himself to humanity. Scripture, in its each and every word, was given by divine inspiration. It is living, true, trustworthy, powerful, sufficient, and without error. It is the supreme authority and guide for all doctrine and conduct. Scripture is the truth by which God brings people into a saving relationship with Himself and leads them to Christian maturity. Since God has chosen to reveal Himself and His will in this way, the ministry of Lake Ann Camp must ever be one of calling individuals to living in faithful, obedient conformity with God’s Word.

Section C - Humans & Sin

We believe God created human persons in His own image to have fellowship with Himself and with each other and to be His caring stewards over His creation. As God’s image, each human person is to embody the holy character of the Creator in a finite way, and therefore each possesses value and dignity. Satan, one of an order of spiritual beings called angels, was created by God to serve Him and do His will. However, by deliberate choice, Satan revolted and fell from his exalted position. Satan tempted Adam and Eve, and they chose to disobey God.

This sin brought death to human persons and the judgment and suffering of the curse upon all creation. Every person is now born spiritually dead, in the bondage of sin, totally depraved, and is unable to freely do the will of God. Although entirely incapable of pleasing God in any way, every human person is accountable to God for thoughts and actions. God’s holy and just character cannot allow sin to remain unpunished, and the eternal judgment of hell awaits all who remain alienated from Him. Sin, therefore, is every human person’s most urgent problem, and each desperately needs to be reconciled to God. Lake Ann Camp must structure its ministries in such a way that this understanding of mankind’s spiritual condition and spiritual need is fully acknowledged.

Section D - Salvation

We believe salvation is the redemption by Christ of the whole human person from sin and death into a restored relationship with the living God. It is the application of Christ’s saving work, offered as a free gift by God, and must be received personally through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Saving faith will encompass knowledge, belief and trust. A person is placed in union with Christ by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

As a child of God, the believer is acquitted of all guilt and brought into a new relationship of peace. Having been renewed in the image of God, each believer lives to please the Lord in all things, and is known by the display of love toward other followers of Christ. The message of God’s provision of salvation is the essence of the Gospel. The ministries of Lake Ann Camp must boldly announce this Gospel, and its promise that whoever believes in Christ, crucified and risen according to the Scriptures, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Section E - The Church

We believe the Church is the body of which Christ is the head and all who believe in Him are members. Christians are commanded to be baptized upon profession of faith and are to unite with a local church for mutual encouragement and growth in discipleship through worship, nurture, service and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world.

Each church is a self-governing body under the lordship of Christ with all members sharing responsibility. The offices of pastor/elder and deacon are to be filled with men who are spiritually gifted and spiritually qualified. Scripture speaks of the ordinances of the church are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s identification with the death, burial and resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper is the partaking of the bread and of the cup by believers together as a continuing memorial of the body and blood of Christ. To partake in this meal is an act of thankful dedication to Him and serves to unite His people until He returns.

It is the position of Lake Ann Camp that the Lord has given these ordinances to the Church, and it is local churches that should conduct them. The ministries of Lake Ann Camp must always serve local churches by assisting them as an extension of their work, and respect them by not usurping those authorities and commands that belong first to them.